(We publish below excerpts
of a report from London-based ARTICLE 19 of October 1990 - Editor)

In December 1987, there
were more than 24,000 newspapers and magazines, including more than 2,000 daily
papers, in 92 languages. Leadership of daily papers has remained at around 0.2
per cent of the population, or about 17 million; in 1985 total circulation of
all papers and magazines was 64 million. While most of the papers and magazines
are under individual ownership; most of the largest papers are published by
publication groups, four of which are particularly influential: the Times of
India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, and the Ananda
Bazar Patrika Group.

The growth of a thriving
press has been inhibited by barriers caused by religious, social, and linguistic
differences. Consequently, the English - language press, with its primarily
educated, middle-class, and urban readership, has retained the widest circulation.
The Indian languages dailies appeal to the increasingly literate provincial
population and, in addition, a few have attracted substantial readership in
Delhi and Bombay. The Hindi Navbharat Times, with a circulation in 1989 of over
250,000, and the Bengali Ananda Bazar Patrika rival the distribution of the
largest English language papers.

The government of Rajiv
Gandhi took various measures to curtail freedom of the press, most of which
were rebuffed. In July 1988, Gandhi's administration, injured by revelations
of the Bofors affair and other corruption, introduced a defamation bill which
sought to create new offences of "criminal imputation" and "scurrilous
writings". A highly successful nationwide strike by the newspaper industry
and increasingly strident popular protests forced Gandhi to withdraw the bill.
He government was also forced to withdraw a bill, proposed in 1988, that would
have given the central government authority to collect extensive technical and
financial information from newspaper and book publishers. The Gandhi government
exerted considerable pressure during 1988 and 1989 on newspapers critical of
the ruling party and its leaders.

For several years, the government
has tightly controlled the production, importation, and distribution of newsprint.
In June 1989 the government raised the prices of both domestic and imported
newsprint so sharply that the survival of many newspapers was threatened. Various
observers accused the State Trading Corporation of India, which has a monopoly
over newsprint imports, of profiteering in an essential commodity. The government
has consistently rejected demands by newspapers for permission to import newsprint
directly.

P.L. Lakhanpal, a Stockholm-based
journalist and writer of Indian birth, was denied a visa to visit India in January
1989. The denial was widely viewed as retaliation for his reporting from Sweden
on the Bofors arms scandal. For many years foreign journalists have been included
in the restrictions on the entry of non-Indian into the seven north-eastern
states. These restrictions range from the requirement that visitors obtain a
special permit to visit wildlife parks in Assam to outright bans in Manipur,
Nagaland, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh. In July 1990 a proposal was made by
the seven state governments to lift the bans, but as of October no action has
been taken by the central authorities.

Near the beginning of its
period in office, the government of V.P.Singh announced its commitment to promoting
freedom of information and appointed a Cabinet committee, consisting of the
Foreign Minister, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, the Minister
of Surface Transport, and-the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission to study
means by which to accomplish this goal. To the great disappointment of advocates
of information freedom, the committee was dissolved on August 27 1990 without
issuing a report or making any recommendations. The National Front government
has continued the practices of prior governments concerning control of newsprint.
However, because there has been an adequate supply of newsprint for the past
year, albeit at prices that press advocates consider excessive, the government's
newsprint policy has not led to significant criticism. Indian customs officials
in New Delhi impounded 10,000 copies of the February 5 1990 issue of Newsweek
magazine. The issue included a map showing northern Kashmir as part of Pakistan.
On April 9 1990, the National Front government promised to amend the Official
Secrets Act to facilitate greater access to information held by the government.
At the beginning of September the Minister of Information, P. Upendra, repeated
the pledge, but no action has been initiated towards this end.

Also on April 9, the National
Front government announced that it intended to amend the law to prohibit phone
tapping for political purposes. A Central Bureau of Investigation report on
the subject has been submitted to the government, but as of September the government
had not introduced a bill in Parliament. However, the government did withdraw
a proposed amendment to the Indian Post Office Act which would have given wide
powers to both central and state governments to "intercept, detain or dispose"
of postal articles.

Despite its reported interference
with AIR and Doordarsan on various occasions, the new government has initiated
steps to grant them a measure of autonomy. The Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting
Corporation of India) Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha in September 1990 (but currently
facing substantial opposition in the upper house), would establish an autonomous
corporation to run radio and TV on the British Broadcasting Corporation model.
The corporation, which would not begin operation before mid-1991, would be accountable
to Parliament and directed by an independent board of governors drawn from media
professionals whose appointments would be insulated from government interference.
A Broadcasting Council would be established to examine complaints against the
corporation and of unfairness or bias in programmes.

Literary and Artistic
ExpressionIn September1988,
India Today and Sunday published interviews with Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born
British author, about his forthcoming novel The Satanic Verses. Khurshid Alam
Khan and Syed Shahbuddin, Muslim Members of Parliament, began a vigorous campaign
to ban the book. Aslam Ejaz of the Islamic Foundation in Madras wrote to Faiyazuddin
Ahmad, of the Foundations UK office, suggesting that he launch a similar campaign
in Britain. On October 5 1988, the Indian Finance Ministry announced the banning
of the book under Section 11 of the Indian Customs Act, adding that the ban
"did not detract from the literary and artistic merit of Rushdie's work".
Several leading Indian newspapers and magazines deplored the ban. The Hindu's
editorial called it "philistine decision" and The Indian Express called
it "thought control". The Economic and Political Weekly of October
22 stated that the ban was a political decision and accused Gandhi of capitulating
because of the impending elections. Other critics of the ban pointed out that
only a small portion of the English-speaking public in India would read the
book even if it were available. Early in 1989 there were several demonstrations
against Salman Rushdie and his novel. On February 13, one person was killed
and over 100 were injured during a riot in Kashmir. On February 14, Iran's late
Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, declaring a death sentence against Rushdie,
and the following day a senior Iranian cleric placed a bounty of US $3 million
on his head. On February 24, western India experienced its largest riot in several
years when young Muslims in Bombay rioted against the book, destroying considerable
property. The police restored order at a cost of at least 12 lives and scores
of injuries.

In April 1989, Hindu militants
threatened to kill M.M. Kalburgi, an Indian historian, for writing a Kannada-language
book they claim blasphemes a 12th century saint. Kalburgi was given 24-hour
protection by police in Dharwar in the southern state of Karnataka. A group
of 43 Kannada writers and academics formed a committee in support of the book.
Also in April 1989, customs authorities blacked out passages critical of Indira
Gandhi's regime in 500 imported copies of the Oxford Illustrated Encyclopaedia:
World History from 1800 to the Present Day.

Films: On October 27 1989,
the government refused to permit broadcasting on national TV of a film about
the tragedy that resulted from the explosion at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal.
The refusal was particularly disappointing in light of the fact that the film
had previously won a national award for excellence. The film's backers challenged
the refusal in the Delhi High Court. No decision had been reached as of July
1990.

Violations of Freedom
of Expression by State and Local AuthoritiesIn recent years,
there has been marked increase in the number of attacks on journalists by police
and unidentified gunmen, often operating at the behest or with the approval
of state or local officials or politicians. In addition, many state and local
governments have seriously chilled legitimate exercise of freedom of expression
by detaining large numbers of people on scant suspicion of co-operation with
militants; mistreating, torturing and, on occasion, killing people held in detention
or confronted during "encounters"; using excessive force in disbursing
peaceful demonstrations; and other unlawful methods of harassment and intimidation.

Journalists concerned about
the mounting attacks on members of the profession drew little comfort from the
assurances in 1988 of India's Deputy Minister of Information that letters had
been sent to state chief ministers asking them to give protection to journalists.
Only one month later, in the wake of an incident in which reporters and photographers
were beaten by police outside the state government building in Bombay, the Maharashtra
Chief Minister, Sharad Pawar, denied having received any letter on the subject.

The Report gives an account
of violations of freedom of expression in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
the Northeast States, the Punjab, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamilnadu, U.P. and West Bengal.

Over the years government
authorities have prosecuted writers and musicians and banned literature. Vittal
(also called Gaddar), a writer of popular political songs, went into hiding
after he was charged as part of the Ramnagar conspiracy case. A collection of
poems by Vara Vara Rao was proscribed in 1987. His challenge to the banning
order is pending in the state High Court.

During the TDP government,
many university professors were suspended, reportedly for merely asserting their
democratic right to protest. Students Union elections were cancelled at two
universities and all students agitations have been suppressed by the police.
At Sri Venkateswaran University, students demonstrating for higher scholarships
were brutally attacked by police wielding lathis (wooden canes) and arrested
under TADA. Mr. A. Subramanyam, a lecturer in law at Nagarjuna University and
a Joint Secretary of APCLC, was suspended from his job allegedly for representing
striking trade unionists. Other professors who have protested allegedly also
have been harassed.

Experts predict that India
is on the brink of an AIDS crises of staggering proportions. The chief doctor
at the government's only AIDS surveillance centre in Bombay estimates that of
the approximately 100,00 prostitutes in Bombay as many as 40 per cent of them
may be infected with the AIDS virus. Tests in 1989 of some 12,000 prostitutes
showed that the infection rate had risen from under six per cent to 20 per cent
in one year. Few of the prostitutes who visit the centre use condoms, and the
centre cannot afford to provide them free of cost. The overwhelming number of
prostitutes, evens those who have tested positive, continue to engage in unsafe
sex. The government maintains that of nearly half a million people tested between
1985 and March 1990, only slightly more than 2,000 tested positive for the HIV
virus. Medical experts insist that the government's figures bear little relation
to reality. The government's failure to provide adequate testing facilities
has permitted widespread contamination of hospital blood, especially outside
of Bombay and Delhi. There are tens of thousands of "professional"
blood donors in India who give blood on average once a month, accounting for
a total of 1.5 million units of blood a year. Although a screening programme
begun in 1987 identified hundreds of donors who tested positive, the lack of
a co-ordinated system allows most infected donors to continue to donate. Because
every blood unit is tested in Bombay, professional donors simply travel 20 miles
or so to donate elsewhere. Although government officials tend to view AIDS as
a problem of drug users, prostitutes, and the poor, doctors trying to mobilize
government action note that blood samples from the so-called five-star hospitals
regularly test positive. An initiative by the government of Tamil Nadu in June
1990 to bring home over 800 women and children from Bombay brothels was met
with consternation when it was discovered that approximately two-thirds of the
returnees were infected with the AIDS virus. Instead of returning the women
and children to their homes as originally planned, the Tamil Nadu government
confined them to special homes for six weeks, promising to release them after
receiving "the required treatment." They were finally released pursuant
to the court order.